Parsley, sage, rosemary, inside

February 15, 2014·Darcie

herbs in jars

Today seemed to be dreary the world over; raining in Sydney, cloudy in London, and snowing in a large part of the United States. When it's cold, raining or dreary outside, I comfort myself with visions of green gardens. Since it will be sometime before I can get back outside in my garden, my Pinterest search today focused on indoor herb gardens. There were plenty of great ideas, such as the canning jar garden pictured above. I've often heard that you shouldn't grow plants in glass jars because the sunlight can damage the roots, so I might line the jars with plastic or heavy paper. If you like the above idea, check out the whimsical example below, featuring jars tilted at jaunty angles.

Angled jar herb garden

I also saw a similar design cleverly using coat racks to hang jars in front of a window, and cork plant markers that look like something I could actually do with all the corks I've been saving for a craft project. Another indoor herb garden I found intriguing utilized upside-down planters (below, right). Even though I find the concept of upside-down planters fascinating, I just can't help but think that I'm going to come into the kitchen one morning to find dirt and mangled plants littering the floor.

Upside down herbs

Every summer I grow several herbs in pots outdoors, but they never seem to last when I bring them into the kitchen. Right now I've got a large rosemary plant that is still growing, but it's assumed a jaunty angle like the photo above, even though I have it planted in a perfectly upright planter. My lemon thyme is getting leggy, and the English thyme gave up a month ago. But I will still dream of having a wall of herbs like this one:

Indoor wall herb garden

In the meantime, I'll use my crooked rosemary, perhaps in one of these tasty recipes from the Eat Your Books library (all available online):

Sunlight on snow (a gin cocktail that seems especially appropriate today)
Rosemary-Parmesan shortbread
Rosemary-apricot squares
Sautéed chicken with Meyer lemon and rosemary
Olive and rosemary focaccia

Do you have an indoor (or outdoor) herb garden? What herbs do you grow?

10 comments

CubangirlFebruary 15, 2014

We have a nice outdoor herb garden. We have the pots on wheeled planks to we can wheel them close to the house when it freezes and we cover them with plastic. Tarragon bit the dust, but parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme are doing ok. We will plant Thai and regular basil, mint, more tarragon if it does not come back on its own (it has the last couple of years), cilantro, chamomile, a couple more thymes (I use a lot of thyme). Our lavender seems to be getting ready to bloom and I hope so will the lemongrass. Inside I have a basil I just bought at TJs and some rosemary I had brought in and put in a vase until I used it and didn't. It now has lovely roots in just water and the tops are green and usable. I miss my tarragon which I use a lot. No herbs for sale here yet.

westerFebruary 16, 2014

Just this morning, I started 4 indoor herb pots. I do hope it works out - I have completely un-green fingers. I do have plans for herbs outdoors as well, my mother has promised to help me out with that.

westerFebruary 17, 2014

and all of us have managed to miss a typo in the title...

DebkelliememberFebruary 15, 2014

If my husband reads this he'll have another project! He's presently into gardening L: we have just planted numerous varieties of basil; tarragon; mint, sage, parsley, rosemary, bay, thyme, oregano, lemon grass, lemon thyme & turmeric!!

ellabeeFebruary 16, 2014

I've kept bay laurel (bay leaves) alive for two winters; it'll be another two months at least before it's safe to leave out day and night. Last year young rosemary dug up from the outdoor bed actually thrived -- but it was a mild winter and I was able to set it out in 50F sun for many days (scattered). This year I've just kept rosemary sprigs ready for consumption for a month or more in jars of water on a windowsill. With light increasing now, I can try some mint soon.

hillsboroksFebruary 18, 2014

I've decided that my eyes automatically "correct" typos to my grief when I am proofreading my notes and emails or reading so I never noticed the typo in the title. Plus my fingers seem to have developed an "autofill" function these past few years where I mean to type one word but my fingers put in another similar word. Case in point - I know I proofread my earlier note before posting it but somehow the word "above" got typed in as "about" in the last sentence. Oh well! But on the good side when I showed my husband the pictures of the kitchen herb gardens he got really excited about the one I was commenting on, the one with the plants from floor to ceiling. Someday I may be able to goad him into doing some sort of kitchen planter for me.

boardingaceFebruary 15, 2014

Yes, that wall is enviable! I have an outdoor garden, with basil, tarragon, oregano, chives, rosemary, thyme, sage, and mint. My dill recently bit the dust.

hillsboroksFebruary 15, 2014

My rosemary and sage are able to survive most of the winter outside here in Oregon as huge shrubs but sadly my thyme and oregano finally bit the dust after the latest snow storm. These wall planters have got me rethinking about trying to do some herbs inside. The full wall planter with the grow light about it is fabulous!

darcie_bFebruary 16, 2014

I envy those of you who live in climates where you can leave plants outside most of the year. I have a couple more weeks before I can even start seedlings. It's been a brutal winter for us; I am worried about the lavender I planted last fall. It's only marginally hardy here. Since we've had a near record number of days below zero, I'm not very confident about its chances.

CubangirlFebruary 19, 2014

Yoohoo, my tarragon survived and is thriving. Ditto for Lemon Thyme and both chives. I guess they liked being covered in plastic to protect them from the freeze. It must have acted as a mini-greenhouse. Our lime tree which was covered in a huge black trash bag is also ok, the leaves are not great, but it has lots of blooms. On the sad side, I don't think the blueberry bushes planted in the ground made it. But we're still hopeful.